ludja

I don't have any particular recipes, but some ideas for different non-wheat bases for stuffing could be buckwheat, wild rice or chestnuts... edited to add: I just reread the first post more closely and it sounds like you want a bread stuffing. It may be possible to make something like this with buckwheat or chestnut flour, I'm not sure. Ground nuts may be another possibility for an add in to achieve a bread-like texture. Cornmeal would certainly have been another idea except for the small fact that she doesn't like it...

Time to resurrect my first thread... Soup is one of the parts of the Thanksgiving meal I'm willing to change from time to time. I love to have a soup, but try to keep it from being too heavy, even though I serve it in small portions. Mayhaw Man's suggestion a few years back of an artichoke and oyster soup still intrigues me. I love the idea of some seafood to start of the meal--both for contrast and for the elegant flair I think it adds. I googled a bit and found out that artichoke oyster soup is actually a New Orleans dish. Here is a recipe: click If MayhawMan gets a chance to read this, I wonder if this is close to your recipe? Another seafood based soup I'm thinking of is a modified Billi Bi mussel soup from Daniel Boulud. The recipe is in "The Cafe Boulud Cookbook" and has a base of chicken stock, white wine, leek, onion, celery, mussel broth and a little creme fraiche. A little before serving watercress is stirred in and then pureed. Final soup is garnished w/cooked mussels and whipped cream w/curry powder. I made this soup in the spring and really liked it. It has a nice concentrated flavor but is not too heavy. If I lived in New England now I might consider the Rocky Point Rhode Island Clam Chowder. It has tomatoes and paprika in it and if one went light on the potatoes it wouldn't be too heavy. Another candidate is a soup I made earlier in the year: parsley soup garnished w/mushrooms . Strong clean flavor and not to hearty to start a Turkey dinner. Also might be nice to have some green color to start the meal.

Here's the egullet discussion thread on the cookbook: Silver Spoon Thanks for mentioning the new Bayless book, I'll have to check it out and see if it is enough of an addition to his others that I already have.

sauteed onion innards, pancetta, breadcrumbs, parmigiano reggiano, salt, pepper , thyme, a little cream

The Cook's Book by Jill Norman (Editor) sounds quite interesting. (egullet-amazon link) There is a thread discussing the book here.

I definately agree with hot cornbread served with chili. As rlibkind mentioned, there are easy ways to have the mixings for cornbread ready to pop in the oven so that you have fresh cornbread. With the recipes I've used, I've premixed the dry ingredients ahead of time in a batch for each pan full. Have pans ready, preheat oven as soon as you walk in the door. Add in liquid ingredients, mix briefly and pop in the oven. For a crowd, I often make some rice also, as mentioned above. And don't forget toppings for people to add. Some ideas are grated cheese, chopped scallions or red onions, chopped jalapenos, sour cream, chopped cilantro, lime wedges. An easy, make ahead dessert idea for a crowd might be Texas Sheet Cake, a chocolate-cinnamon cake with chocolate frosting. There a few different recipes posted on RecipeGullet here. Another nice and easy dessert would be cajeta sundaes. Could also top these with glazed pecans and serve with bizcochito cookies or some simple cinnamon sugar cookies.

Great first post, welcome Roxie. I love New Mexico green chile; that sounds like a really good idea. This is my mom's basic recipe as well, and I've continued with it so far. We use Pepperidge Farm regular crumb stuffing, Jimmy Dean sausage, lots of sauteed mushrooms... Maybe I'll add green chile to it this year, a la Roxie's suggestion. I've always been intrigued by oyster stuffings but have not yet tried one... Mikeycooks oyster and pancetta recipe sounds very good...

That is excellent, tejon! The flavors sound delicoius as well. I may try it in ranekins for a non-Halloween effect also...

I felt like I had met Barbara Tropp after reading her books, "The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking" and "China Moon". Her writing style is clear and upbeat in the books, and it conveys a strong passion and love for her subject in addition to extensive scholarship and experience. There are many personal anecdotes accompanyhing the recipes and also many of her own cooking 'trucs'. In "China Moon", she also speaks often of the other people who worked with her at her restaurant in San Francisco and shares stories of starting and running the restaurant. I was happy to get a chance to eat at China Moon twice before it closed in the mid-nineties.

Here are some of the 'older' (from England) garnishes she mentions: heavy cream fine sugar to dredge over the pie good Port wine in a dcanter to pour over the pie Cheddar or Cheshire cheese toasted hazelnuts blanched almonds melted quincy jelly diced candied orange peel sweetened whipped cream plum conserve (damson plum jelly in Mystic) dried currants raisins cinnamon sugar ... I think this may be one of my all time most favorite eGullet posts ever. ← I thought of Jaymes when I read the following quote recently from John T. Edge's, "Apple Pie, An American Store". (Fun book to read, by the way. He travels across the US musing on and looking for apple pie, finding different styles and customs and meeting some of the people behind the pies. There are recipes sprinkled in among the stories). This quote is describing apple pie for dessert after a wonderful dinner he and his wife had at Frank Stitt's "New Southern" restaurant, Highland Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. This sounds great, and blue cheeese is an idea, as well. It would be wonderful for Thanksgiving although I think it mght be nicest when only apple pie is being served. Also--in others of his travels, he mentioned having a difficult time finding a restaurant (even up in Vermont) that would offere a slice of cheddar alongside the pie although they knew of the custom. I guess this is a tradition that is being mainly kept up in homes rather than restaurant kitchens.

According to Bill Neal in "Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie: (The filling in Japanese Fruitcake can be the same as is used in a "Japanese Ccconut Pie". The filling for the two in Neal's book is: fresh grated coconut, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon zest. For the pie filling, eggs are added. Also interesting, that "Japanese Fruitcake" is quite different from that one one might regularly think of as a fruitcake. The filling is sandwiched between the cake layers that are spiced and have rasins and pecans in them.) I wonder if the 'fruit' in the pie name is just a name carryover from it being the filling for the fruitcake.) It would be interesting to hear what is in browniebakers, "japanese fruit pie". edited to add: What a classic spread browniebaker! I like the mix of pies you have. I've never made a butterscotch pie but I know I would love it.

You said she isn't really a big baker, but another option would be to use edible flowers. Brush them with eggwhite and dip in sugar... Maybe the kids would have a blast eating flowers...

Thanks, galleygirl and 9lives, for the info on Pandan Leaf and the Thai restaurants. I get to Boston pretty often so I'll keep them in mind.

Here it is click. (I'll also ask a host to merge the two). Admin: merged threads.

I would enjoy seeing theabroma's recipe as well if she is able to post it. I just saw an article in the digest of the SF Chronicle this week with a recipe for a Pan de Muerto, in case you wanted another recipe for your files. It is adapted from a recipe from the baking cookbook by The Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley. (I think the book was well received, in general). The article should be available for a week or two. click

Nice post marktfrau! And good to hear that the type of cooking and ingredients you've mentioned are 'alive and well'. My Oma lives 'next door' in Graz and what you describe it similar to her routine. Hint, hint... It would be wonderful to have a foodblog from Munich (contact Soba addict). Maybe we'll get lucky and get two foodblogs from Munich once Behemouth is there... Tschuss!

Hey, I noticed you've put cukes on a few of your sandwiches. I love cucumbers on many sandwiches as well. I've mentioned it in another thread, but a truly great combo is: lightly toasted rye mayo liverwurst lots of very thinly sliced cucumbers s+p Thanks for the great blogging.

It's a funny one-liner, but not really fair, I think, to the point that was trying to be conveyed. Namely, that in exposing some of his friends to carefully prepared food, including his own cooking, he saw some recognition in his friends regarding how food could be treated with respect and enjoyed. They evidently did not gain this experience in their own home growing up whatever their other advantages. Whether someone happens to be wealthy and this occurs at an expensive restaurant is really besides the point. There is also quite a bit more in the post. Hey, I never thought I'd be sticking up for a Dookie. (Tarheel fan)

When I was 20, I couldn't cook either. Nor did I need to, frankly. But then, at 24, I got married. We entertained a lot, and went to the homes of our friends. Often we were asked to "bring something." An appetizer, vegetable, soup, whatever. And then along came the babies. Three of them. I figured out that cooking was going to be a part of my life, like it or not. So decided that I might just as well get good at it. And now, some 40 years later, I am. I think it may be a bit too early to judge your friends. ← Great point, Jaymes. As mentioned above, I didn't really start to cook until I had my own place after college.

Exactly. Hey, some people don't like to cook. And as weird as it seems in this day and age, the article and some of the posts here demonstrate that in some circles women are still *expected* to cook and men are not. Until those expectations become equal, I think women who refuse to get interested in cooking may be exercising some healthy self-preservation. ← The interesting part comes up when you have kids. If you're a single or divorced parent with custody of a child, then whether or not you *like* to cook, hopefully one will decide to do so for ones children and in a reasonably healthy fashion. If one has a two parent family, then it is a question of working it out between the two parents regarding various issues including who 'likes' to cook or the relative demands of respective jobs, or splitting the work in some agreed upon fashion. I guess this all assumes that one feels that cooking good meals for ones kids is necessary rather than optional! Regarding another point above regarding how one may learn to cook. In our family's case neither I nor my sister cooked to any extent growing up. (My mom's kitchen is her domain). We watched a lot though, helped out sometime and just grew up eating almost all home cooked food. It was an easy step for both of us to start cooking once we were on our own, equipped with a basic cookbook or two and with a sprinkling of phone call advice here and there. My mom is an excellent cook and her experience was similar; she taught herself how to cook when she left home, which in her case was pretty close to when she got married. (She didn't have her mom to call either, who was at that time, a very expensive phone call away in Europe).

Has anyone been to La Residence lately in Chapel Hill? I know that it is under different management from the time I was there, but this used to be, at least, a place I would consider to be a romantic restaurant in an old historic building, one block off Franklin St. They use to serve French cuisine and the food was very good then. (The restaurant was started in the 80's by Bill and Moreton Neal). Here's a link to their current website: http://www.laresidencedining.com/index.html?page=1 Looking at the listed menu it looks less classically French now than it used to be.

hmmm.... pistachios

Thanks Payal Sharma for the great recipes for the dip and chutney. I just posted a recipe using pomegranates with dates and pistachios in another thread here. (Great inspiration from Judy Rodger (Zuni Cafe) re: mascarpone stuffed dates with pistachios and pomegranates and fresh oranges). Welcome to egullet by the way, Payal Sharma! Great first posts.

Good to have the update on the relocation. Any hints you can recall in Lodi or Woodland? I escape the Bay area vortex every once in awhile and find this thread very helpful in addition to interesting.

I found this LATimes review by Russ Parsons from last year and he agrees as well. Thank you for mentioning ths, it sounds like a special place. click Read the whole article. It's inspiring to hear the whole story of the restaurant and how it came into being. The decor sounds wonderful as well.